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The Islamic State or ISIS is a terrorist organisation which has taken control over much of Syria and Iraq, since 2014. ISIS also has branches in various countries like Bangladesh, Mali, Somalia, Egypt and has links with terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Al-Qaida.

The US has offered a reward of US $10 million for information on the capture or death of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. ISIS is generally known for its brutal beheading videos of soldiers, civilians , journalists and aid workers, blatant abuse of human rights, trading women and girls as sex slaves and destroying of cultural heritage sites.

In August 2014, the US and Iran started a campaign of airstrikes on ISIS targets in Iraq. Since then, fourteen countries in a US-led coalition along with local Kurdish and Arab forces in the area have also executed airstrikes on ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. This has resulted in the killing of several top leaders of ISIS, weakening their grasp on many of their strongholds. Iraqi forces had begun their invasion of ISIS held city of Mosul and constant shelling and gunfire has plagued the city for over a month.